De Spoken of Wonders - Jeroen Olyslaegers

A unique encounter between music, literature, and performance; writer Jeroen Olyslaegers, singer Nikkie Van Lierop, and pianist Thomas Boodts bring an immersive performance based on Olyslaegers' new novel De Wonderen. Amandine and her twin brother Ambrose grow up in the late nineteenth century in an Antwerp banking family that drives them with a hard hand into a corset of obedience and conventions. Amandine is married off to a banker who hopes to amass a fortune in the rubber industry, while Ambrose, with the drama of a bohemian, is only concerned with self-destruction. Together they seek escape and freedom in mysterious séances. The performance evokes ghosts from the end of the nineteenth century in a city full of money and poverty, dance halls and brothels, world exhibitions and grand dinners, occult desires, and merciless greed. Thomas plays and improvises with Ravel and Debussy as allies on his historic Pleyel grand piano from 1890, Nikkie's voice evokes witches and occasionally lets a choral chant resound, Jeroen becomes possessed by the voice of Amandine and leads you to a bygone world full of hidden desires for freedom. The performance is organized by Regiobib Rivierenland, a partnership consisting of the libraries of Berlaar, Bonheiden, Duffel, Heist-op-den-Berg, Lier, Nijlen, Putte, and Sint-Katelijne-Waver. Every year they jointly put their shoulders to a major literary activity, which this year therefore takes place in Sint-Katelijne-Waver.